‘Pokemon GO’ Update Makes Eggs More Powerful For One Week Only

Trainers are gearing up for a big Pokemon GO update that will be available today, and it fittingly involves eggs. In honor of Easter, the new Pokemon GO update will allow players to find a wide selection of different Pokémon from Eggs found in the game.

Niantic announced the new Pokemon GO update, titled “Eggstravaganza,” on Thursday, where trainers can gain access to more unique Pokemon than usual from 2 km Eggs.

“Lace up your walking shoes and get ready to put a spring in your step—the Pokémon GO Eggstravaganza is nearly here! From 1:00 P.M. PDT on April 13 to 1:00 P.M. PDT on April 20, 2017, a greater variety of Pokémon can now be found in 2 km Eggs, so get cracking and see what you find! Your Egg-venture doesn’t stop there, though—you’ll also earn more Candy for every Egg you hatch!”

The Pokemon GO company explains that the Eggstravaganza will also allow trainers to level up at faster rates thanks to double XP. But wait, there’s more! If Pokemon GO trainers have a Lucky Egg, they will be able to earn four times the amount of XP received. Niantic also reveals that these Lucky Eggs will be half off in the Pokemon GO shop.

Pokemon GO Eggs are acquired at virtual PokeStops around the world. Lucky Eggs can be found at PokeStops in addition to being available for purchase in the app’s shop.

The new Pokemon GO update should likely please fans of the game, who haven’t seen a huge update in a few months. After initially rolling out a few new Pokemon in December, the game finally released a selection of Generation 2 Pokemon in February, which allowed players to collect an even greater variety than ever before. Previously, buzz for Pokemon GO had died down in the world of pop culture after a huge initial craze when the game was first launched in the summer of 2016.

Even if the game’s popularity has declined slightly, a new study out of University of Wisconsin–Madison has found that Pokemon GO players are happier than non-players. Graduate student James Alex Bonus, one of the authors of the study, began studying Pokemon GO shortly after it was released to the world last summer and said in a statement via the University of Wisconsin-Madison that players seemed to have greater peace of mind.

People told us about a variety of experiences with differential relationships to well-being. But for the most part, the Pokemon Go players said more about positive things that were making them feel their life was more worthwhile, more satisfactory, and making them more resilient.”

'Pokemon GO' has put some players in danger while playing in public [Image by AP Photo/Thomas Cytrynowicz]

Pokemon GO was stigmatized by certain subsets of the media during the height of its popularity amid reports of distracted players who got themselves into precarious situations. The nature of the game often leads to players not being fully conscious of the world around them, which has led to fights, major accidents, and even death. Additionally, the game might have contributed to the classic argument that heavy phone use can have an adverse effect on social behavior, which Bonus seems to reject.

“There’s this idea that playing games and being on your phone is a negative social experience that detracts from things, but there haven’t been many chances to ask large groups of players about their experiences,” Bonus said. “The more people were playing, the more they were engaging in behaviors that reflected making new connections — making Facebook friends, introducing themselves to someone new, exchanging phone numbers with someone, or spending more time with old friends and learning new things about them.”